Baghdad, Nov 29: US and Iraqi forces have killed or
captured at least 7,000 al-Qaeda fighters in the past two
years, with 30 "senior leaders' taken out of action since
July, a US military spokesman said yesterday.
The news comes hard on the heels of a leaked US marine
report that states US forces cannot defeat the al-Qaeda-led
insurgency in the vast western desert province of al-Anbar.
"Since October 2004, we have now killed or captured over
7,000 al-Qaeda terrorists," coalition spokesman Major General
William Caldwell told journalists.
"Coalition and Iraqi security forces have made
significant progress in dismantling the terrorist network,"
he said, adding that since July some 30 "senior level"
al-Qaeda have also been killed or captured.
Also, in the past two weeks, a series of raids
throughout central and northern Iraq netted 11 leaders of the
al-Qaeda-allied Ansar al-Sunna insurgent group, he said.
Caldwell disputed the leaked assessment of the
situation in Anbar, which was reported by an American newspaper.
"If anything, there has been a turn of events in the
past few months towards the positive," he said.
Citing a senior US intelligence official, the paper
said "the fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of
the insurgency and criminality" described in the August
report remain true in November.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 00:00